Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich, Western Ribs, & Wings

I just purchased my "Lottery Cooker" which is an all Stainless Steel Hasty Bake Model 257 Gourmet cooker. I say lottery because it takes a lottery hit plus a second mortgage on my home for the funds to own one. I believe this cooker is the best of the best of the cookers like it out there and I have cooked on most of them.



This is the first cook on my new Hasty Bake Gourmet #257 Stainless Steel grill. I brushed it down good on the inside with peanut oil and then setup a fuse burn for this longer cook.



I used two firebricks and just split the firebox down the middle and added my lump charcoal. I will light it with a Weber fire cube in the left front corner and it should burn all the way down and around the corner and back to the front. I’m looking for about a 7-8 hour burn.



Looks a little tight at the corner but I think the fire will go around it ok. I then added some hickory chunks to my fire. I then placed the heat deflector over the firebox. Lit it off and then got my meat ready for the cook.



These so called Western ribs are cut off of a pork butt and are pretty thick. I sprinkled on a generous amount of Smokin’ Guns hot rub and placed them on the grill.




I got the cooker dialed in at about 225 degrees measured at the cooking surface and let it go for a few hours with the Western ribs. Near the end of their cook, I slopped on some Blues Hog bbq sauce and glazed them for a few minutes and then took them off the grill.



They sure looked good. I then added the first batch of my breaded hot wings.



The wings usually take about an hour at the lower temp and then I added my hot sauce and finished up the first batch. With my heat deflector in the center of the firebox, the two ends of the grill were not covered and I could move the wings around both direct and indirect and that worked out great for finishing them up.



Later, I added the second round of wings over the direct part of the grill and noticed that I had a big chunk of my hickory smoke wood on fire with the flames coming up thru the cooking grate and decided to just add the steaks as well for their searing. I had planned to do them at the end of the cook with a raised firebox so this worked out great.



I also sliced up a couple of onions about 1/2” thick for my sandwiches and placed them on the top cooking grid of the cooker for about 90 minutes.



The ribeye steaks had some garlic salt and fresh cracked black pepper sprinkled on them before the cook. I seared them about 4 minutes a side and checked them and they were done to about medium so that was just fine for them. I would have preferred medium rare but I missed that one by a couple minutes.



My two plates of super hot chicken wings.



The Western ribs.



My two ribeyes just before I cut them up for my Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches.



The steak sliced for my treat.



This is the start of my brides sandwich as she doesn’t do soppy. We will be using hot dog buns for our sandwich.

I like to place my onions, and my steak slices in some warm Lipton Onion Soup and then add my roasted peppers. I then prep my sandwich out of the soup.



I start by spooning on about 2-3 tablespoons of the soppy on my bun. I then add the balance of the ingredients from the soup. Next is the cheese....Now That is a Philly Cheese Steak!

Was a nice first cook on the Gourmet.

Rib Sandwich / Char-Broil 940X

Kroger had those great big “bronto” sized spare ribs on sale again last week for $1.67 a pound and even though they are all pumped up with salt water (13%)....I still couldn’t pass them up and bought several slabs. Figured I could do something with them if I was careful with my rubs and process so they wouldn’t taste like cured ham!

I decided to do rib sandwiches with a couple of those great big 6.5 pound slabs.



I figured it would take about 6-7 hours to get these big rib slabs done so I set up the CB 940X cooker with some fire bricks in the charcoal grate which will give me a longer fuse burn and loaded it with some Wicked Good brickettes which make a nice longer burn in the grill. I then setup my grates for an indirect cook and used grids to make it a two layer cook to get it all on the cooker. Fired it off and then prepped my ribs while I was waiting for the cooker to get on temp.



I cut each slab in half and sprinkled on a blend of Smokin’ Guns hot rub mixed 50/50 with some Florida Crystals pure cane sugar. I needed some extra sweetener to overpower some of that lousy salt water.



I smoked them with some hickory chunks for about 4 hours and then pulled them off for foiling. In each of the foil boats, I placed about 2 oz of apple juice, some brown sugar, about 1 oz of Agave Nectar, and about an ounce of clover honey. Sealed them up and placed them back on the cooker for about 2 more hours in the heat as I needed some real fall off the bone rib meat for my sandwiches.



Pulled the ribs off the cooker and removed the foil and then removed all the bones and cartilage from the ribs. I also chopped up some of the larger pieces and placed it in a large bowl.



The pulled and chopped meat came out wonderful and not too salty and I put up about half the meat in freezer bags for future use and then made up my sandwiches.



This is a brand new sauce from my friend Bill Arnold and his Blues Hog company and is “Killer”. It is called Smokey Mountain Sauce and I used it on my rib meat before I placed it on a sandwich.



I placed a big pile of the meat on a hotdog bun and then added some cheese chunks, some fruit, and some peppers.



I then added my slaw....shaaaaazam, now that is a sandwich!

Grate Steaks

Four or five times a year, our local Kroger store will have a bargain that I can't pass up. It might be spare ribs, maybe round steak or chuck steak, or even whole chickens. A few day ago, they had a sale on their USDA Whole Boneless Choice Ribeye loin for just $4.97 a pound. With hamburger running about $3.39 a pound, this is a bargain in comparison! This meat normally sells for about $10.00 a pound cut into steaks.



I purchased two of the whole loins with a combined weight of 34.24 pounds with a total price of $342.06 for a sale price of $170.18. Heck of a deal...half price for great meat.



The ticket on one of the whole loins.



I usually start by cutting off the tail as I use it in sausage and then cut a roast off of each end of the loin and slice the balance up into about 1-1/4" thick steaks. However, we were also out of what I call "State Fair" steaks so I cut what meat I would use for the roasts into my 1/2" thick State Fair sandwich steaks.

I like to grill the State Fair steaks about 75 seconds a side over a very hot lump charcoal fire and then place them into a half pan filled with some hot Lipton Onion soup. Serve them right out of the pan on a good bun. Good Stuff!!



More steaks ready for the shrink wrap.



They all didn't make it to the freezer...now that's a nice steak.



Ready to freeze for future use.

Butterflied and Pulled Extra Juicy Chicken / Weber Kettle

This is a treat that we like to do often as it is simple and always produces great results. We plan to use this chicken as pulled chicken and we want the finished chicken just dripping wet with as much retained juice as possible. Don't want to spill any of that goodness down on the fire. Must be retained inside the chicken. Got That!!!



Ok, I had the Char-Broil cast iron grid in the cooker so I decided to use it and set the fire up for an indirect cook with a drip pan in the middle of the kettle.



Loaded some Ozark Oak lump into the baskets on each side of my cooking area and lit it off.



This is a fresh Bell & Evans whole chicken that hasn't been injected with a lot of salt water and seaweed and with full coverage perfect skin. We need perfect skin for this treat as the secret to this cook is in the skin.



Turn that chicken over and cut out the back bone. Then break the breast bone so it will lay flat on the plate. I added some Smokin' Guns rub to this back side of the chicken and then turned it over.



Sprinkled on more rub to the skin side and it is ready for the cooker. NOW, from this point forward, this chicken will NEVER be with the skin up during the cook. It will not be turned over again, period. SKIN SIDE DOWN.



I carefully arrange the chicken on the grid to be sure the skin has everything covered so none of the juice can get out of the meat.



During the cook, there will be puddles of juice on top on the chicken as all that great skin is holding all this juicy goodness inside the chicken. SKIN SIDE DOWN, use that lousy old chicken skin to your advantage!



I did a couple burgers too and those Char-Broil grids left some nice marks on the meat.



Late into the cook, I still had some puddles of juice on top of the chicken. I remove the chicken at about 165 internal measured with a Thermopen.

I take the chicken off keeping it skin side down being very careful not to spill any remaining juice. It is placed on a plate skin side down for about an hour to let it cool and absorb the juice back into the meat.



After cooling and turning over to skin side up, it still leaks some of that juicy goodness on my plate. This is one juicy chicken. Can you imagine, non-injected, non brined, non pumped in any way.....and all that goodness!



I then strip all the skin off of the chicken. Next step is to pull the chicken and place it into a bowl.



I chop up the chicken skin into little pieces, chop up about 3-4 pieces of bacon and chop up about 2 fresh Jalapeno or hot banana peppers for this treat.



This goes into a skillet with about 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and I fry this mixture up until about crisp.



I strain the grease out and add the mixture into my pulled chicken.



Now, this is some good stuff!



Makes a nice juicy chicken sandwich. YUM

Beef Ribs, Slab Potatoes, Breaded Hot Wings / CB 940X

I found a slab of beef ribs in the back of the freezer that had been in there about a year so they needed to be cooked up. Since I will have some extra room on the cooker, decided to cook up some breaded hot wings and some slab potatoes.



I rolled my Char-Broil 940X out to my cooking area.



Figured I would need about a 6 hour burn so I set it up for an indirect fuse burn with 3 firebricks. I also added a raised grid to give me some additional space on the indirect area of the cooker.



Pulled the membrane off of the back side of the ribs and gave them a light coat of Smokin’ Guns Hot rub. Wife fixed up some more slab potatoes and I put them on the cooker along with the ribs.

While this was cooking up, made up my breading and breaded up the chicken wings and got them into the fridge for about 45 minutes before they can go on the cooker. Best to let the breading set up for the best results.



After the potatoes came off, I added my breaded hot chicken wings.



Later into the cook after I had sauced the wings and turned them. I did sauce and turn these wings about 4 times as the breading really sucks up all that hot goodness.



The breaded hot wings just off the cooker.



A nice looking slab of meaty beef ribs.

Steak and Slab Potatoes / Weber Kettle

I needed to cook up a couple of steaks and decided to do them on my Weber Performer and with all that extra room, I needed something else to cook and just loaded it up with some slab potatoes.



I set the cooker up for both direct and indirect cooking.



I sliced my pots lengthwise and brushed on some peanut oil.



I sprinkled on some dried herbs along with some salt and fresh cracked black pepper and got them ready for the cooker. There are many herbs and spices that are good on the pots including thyme, rosemary, basil, chives, dill, oregano, dried onions, garlic salt, garlic powder, to name a few. I also like to sprinkle on some parmesan cheese just before they come off of the cooker. Just pick out a couple of things that you like and put them on your slab potatoes.



I place the potatoes on the indirect side of the cooker and do not add any smoke wood as my good all wood charcoal give the pots a great flavor.



A picture a little later into the cook as I did the steaks on the direct side of the cooker.



Some rib-eyes done on the plate.



My slab potatoes.

These slab potatoes freeze well and nuke well so we try to keep them on hand for a quick treat especially with steak and burgers.